New hummingbird species discovered

There's a new chirp in the forest. The Gorgeted Puffleg, a rare hummingbird that boasts a plumage of violet blue and iridescent green on its throat, has been discovered living in the cloud forests of southwestern Colombia, researchersannounced Sunday.Researchers have warned that the newly discovered bird is in danger from the slash-and-burn system of the region's coca crops, the raw material used in the production of cocaine.The species belongs to the Puffleg genus, which appear to have "little cotton balls above their legs," said Luis Mazariegos-Hurtado, who has spent 30 years documenting hummingbirds and founded the Colombian Hummingbird Conservancy.
Investigators
caught their first glimpse of the bird while surveying a mountain ridge
in the Cauca province in 2005.

Braving the zone'sleftist rebels and
drug traffickers, they returned to confirm the sighting.

An angler in the US had quite a shock when a fish he"d caught bit him with distinctly human-like teeth.Samples from the mysterious fish have been sent away for analysis to determine its species, in the meantime the specimen has been placed on ice however nobody is in a rush tocook and eat it. Anangler had a shock in the US - when a mystery fish bit him back with distinctly human-looking teeth. . Frank Yarborough was fishing in Lake Wylie, South Carolina, when he hooked the fish which w...

A new species of prehistoric giant boa constrictor, the "Titanoboa", has been discovered. This behemoth of the reptile world lived several million years ago, weighed as much as a car and was as long as a school bus, putting even the most terrifying of Hollywood"s giant movie snakes to shame."The largest snake the world has ever known — as long as a school bus and as heavy as a small car — ruled tropical ecosystems only 6 m...

A video has caught an underwater animal, which looks like a flower, practically jogging along the ocean bottom. The stalked crinoid spends most of its time sitting and catching food with the flowerlike wheel of feathery arms that have earned it and its relatives the nickname sea lilies. Scientists had known for decades that stalked crinoids sometimes move—but barely. They had been clocked atspeeds no greater than 0.6 meter per hour. Now, however, a video from a submersible dive off Grand Bahama ...

Bugs were a lot bigger more than 250 million years ago -- millipedes longer than a human leg, dragonflies with wing spans like hawks -- and now a question that has long puzzled scientists has been explained. The reason there are no humongous insects now is because of a bottleneck that occurs in insects' air pipes as they grow larger. They were able to surmount the problem in the Paleozoic Era thanks to a high-oxygen atmosphere.Insects aren't like animals with backbones and deliver oxygen...

Anglers all have tales about the one that got away, the fish of legendary size that stripped the line from the reel. A new study suggests why that there might indeed be giants and offers an explanation for how they grow so huge. Turns out fishermen themselves can be responsible for the monsters. If a lake or pond is overfished, and a lot of the big ones are caught, the situation is ripe for oversized freaks to develop, according to a new computer model. The research suggests that harvesting only...

Officials in Queensland have alerted swimmers to keep out of the water after a giant shark was found almost bitten in two by what is estimated to be a 20ft monster great white almost as large as the shark from the movie Jaws."A "monster"great white shark measuring up to 20 ft long is on the prowl off apopular Queensland beach, according to officials. . Swimmers were warned to stay out of the water off Stradbroke Island after th...

Submitted by Pendekar Timur: A new species of mountain frog that changes colour in response to its surroundings has been discovered in northeast Thailand, a biologist said Wednesday. The Odorrana aureola, known locally as the Phu Luang Cliff frog after the national park where it was found, can grow to 80 millimeters (3.5 inches) and has a green body which occasionally turns brown, researchers said."It reflects its surrounds," said Tanya Chan-ard, curator of Bangkok'sNational Scienc...

If you hate creepy-crawlies, you might want to avoid Lake Tawakoni State Park, where a 200-yard stretch along a nature trail has been blanketed by a sprawling spider web that has engulfed seven large trees, dozens of bushes and the weedy ground. If you hate mosquitoes, you might just love this bizarre web."At first, it was so white it looked like fairyland," said Donna Garde, superintendent at the park about 45 miles east of Dallas. "Now it's filled with so many mosquitoes tha...

Submitted by Pendekar Timur: An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a "monster" toad the size of a small dog. With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer."It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually females but this one wasa rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister." Frogwatch...

In his latest book, Pleasurable Kingdom, ethologist Jonathan Balcombe tells a nice story of two fish crows he observed on Assateague Island off the coast of Virginia. "They first engaged in flight play then, over the next 10 minutes, one bird (always the same one) repeatedly sidled up to the other, leaned over and pointed his/her beak down, exposing the nape. The other bird responded by gently sweeping his/her bill through the feathers as though searching for parasites. There was every indi...

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